Friday, April 23, 2010

Digging his own Grave(s)

Frank Graves just keeps digging himself deeper and deeper.

Yesterday: ‘I told them that they should invoke a culture war. Cosmopolitanism versus parochialism, secularism versus moralism, Obama versus Palin, tolerance versus racism and homophobia, democracy versus autocracy. If the cranky old men in Alberta don’t like it, too bad. Go south and vote for Palin.’

Today he sort of makes a half hearted apology, but moments later he steps into again by telling the Globe :

Mr. Graves said he was trying to show there are demonstrable differences between Conservative supporters and supporters of other parties.

I do believe, and this gets more subtle, that there is a higher incidence of people who are less tolerant to homosexuals and more wary of other races, within the Conservative Party. I can demonstrate that empirically."

That does not mean that Conservatives or Albertans are homophobic or xenophobic, but it does mean that many people, and more people statistically that have those points of view, end up in that party than in other places."

Wow, just freaking wow.

Not only does he single out Alberta again (why does he keep doing this?) but he goes on to say that he can prove that there are more racists in the CPC than other parties and that he can demonstrate this empirically.

How? Did he do some type of survey asking people if they were racist and to identify their political party affiliation at the same time? He didn't and he is full of it, but if he did conduct such a poll I wonder what the margin of error rate would be for that one.

No chance of anyone lying on a question like that is there.

Keep digging Frank, you may get to the bottom sooner than you think.



and here I am thinking my little issue with the CBC was going to be the most interesting thing on Power and Politics yesterday.

Silly racist Albertaardvark.


Update: A tip from JDot in the comments: Laurence Martin stands by his quote: "The quote is exactly as Frank gave it to me. 'I told them...' meaning the Liberals."

That is 'told' as in the past tense. Spin that.

12 comments:

CanadianSense said...

Is their a workshop to learn anti Alberta talking points?

Miller, Charest, Duceppe, Layton have all been critical or Oilsands wealth from AB.

It might be recognition of the new financial political power from the West.

The_Iceman said...

As a mathematician, I would LOVE to see his empirical "proof".

I have been bouncing around some jokes like Liberal Graves Digger. Right now though the most important thing is that EKOS's contract with the CBC should be terminated immediately. How safe is his job in his own company?

L said...

As a master's level sociologist, you would think that Mr. Graves would have learned about the dangers of stereotyping, which is EXACTLY what he is doing in abusing his firm's polling statistics and over-analyzing them!!!

That said, I am pleased that the Liberals are getting crappy advice, as the conservatives know very well what issues we well-educated, cosmopolitan, female, western Canadian voters do support and it ain't what they think in the Toronto-Ottawa "Liberal culture" circles. Now that I look, the EKOS leadership team maybe looks a bit light on hard quantitative research skills http://www.ekos.com/about/team.asp#frank

JDot said...

Lawrence Martin has confirmed what Graves said.

http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/04/23/chris-selley-from-the-department-of-inadequate-explanations.aspx

"UPDATE: Lawrence Martin responds: "The quote is exactly as Frank gave it to me. 'I told them...' meaning the Liberals.""

There is no way the CBC can keep Graves...

Anonymous said...

There is a tide that is rising in Canada right now. I'm not sure I'd call it 'right wing' but, take a little looksy at how quickly everyday normal people shut down Dalton McGuinty's foray into sexual socialism this week. Liberals like Graves are pissed at the people who keep the LPC out of the big chair and it aint just the West anymore. billg

wilson said...

Kinsella's response to all this:
''If you have an electoral strategy, don’t talk about it.''

Rest of Libloggers and their commentors give Graves the thumbs up.

The Liberals and their media buddies have talked this culture war game since 2003,
so long infact, they believe it to be true.

''empirical proof''
Graves needs to tell us:
-who commissioned the poll
-when will the data be made public

wilson said...

''..It’s what worked for Mr. Chrétien against Preston Manning and Stockwell Day...''


I can imagine what all those busy folks in the Tory attack ad department are doing today!

Ardvark said...

If he would have just apologized and walked away he had a chance, but after his clarification the CBC has no choice but to toss this biased pollster to the curb.

CanadianSense said...

I don't think we have the same standards or rules of fair play for each political party.

Can you imagine if this was said by a conservative Pollster?

Most people don't care or are watching politics so this may just be business as usual.

The H.G. circus Ekos Poll show this is damaging to all parties. Many of them just don't get it. The gotcha stuff is out of control.
Don Martin has written two articles lately being critical and talking about missing the right issues. The 1990's culture war will not work. Too many things have changed.

I suspect this is Plan B trying to save seats in Toronto from the next election.
In 2008 it was a 20point gap. That gap is not alot smaller. The suburbs and many Van-Toronto seats are going to change hands.
Kenny, policies have made a difference. PMO is expanding into TO, Van, MTL to bypass traditional media to do outreach to ethnic community.

Bec said...

"Rest of Libloggers and their commenters give Graves the thumbs up."

Graves clearly validates the Liberal ideology and the bloggers have confirmed it, we have recognized their cruelty from day 1.

As for WK, that's just the sneakier and sleazier version at work.

AS for Graves? How did he get to be president of anything?

Ardvark said...

I wonder if Warren would like to pipe up about his many run ins with the anti-Israel factions within his own party.

Let's face it, there are idiots in every party, but only a party hack would claim he has proof that one party has more than any other.

Anonymous said...

Guess this answers the age old question then, who is the political party of division in this country? The liberals. (real conservative)